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Ubisoft Delayed Driver: San Francisco To Attain 60 FPS

If you're a big-time fan of racing games, you know how important silky smooth 60 frames per second can be.

This is why developer Ubisoft Reflections opted to delay Driver: San Francisco: according to what Creative Director Martin Edmondson told X360A, the player can easily tell the difference between 30 and 60 frames per second, and that difference is very significant:

"60 frames per second is one of those things, that's not just a number. If you play a game running at 30 and you play a game running at 60, the difference back to back is certainly quite immense. The fluidity of the visuals, they come toward you smoothly and beautifully. It's much closer to how quickly your eye works and it actually matches the way most TVs update rather than repeating the frame twice so you get that blurred thing at 30. It's also to do with the responsiveness of the controls. It seems like a small thing but once you get that thirtieth-of-a-second gain and things are reacting within a sixtieth-of-a-second, especially in a game like Driver with all the traffic coming at you like this, it's difficult to measure."

Yeah, it took a ton of extra effort but in the end, the gamer benefits. Edmondson added that in its present condition, they can switch back and forth between 30 and 60 frames per second in the new Driver, and although many of us are used to 30FPS, it's clear that all that effort is worth it for 60. Now, we just need to play the game, which looks plenty promising.

Thats good. I'm only a little interested in this game because my friends and I use to play Driver2 all the time way back when and got a kick out of messing with the cops in the game. Haven't played a Driver game since then so I may give this a rental when it comes out.

I just hope above all hope that they bring back film director mode. That was so much fun to play around with!!! Imagine you and your friend, one is the cop, one is the crook, in an epic street chase around San Fran, and you get to direct the replay video like your own movie and keep it as a reminder of fun times in the game.

Anyone know if it's coming back? Film Editor was omitted in Driver 3 and Parallel Lines, such a mistake to me. There's not a lot of mission based driving games, cept for GTA, but many parents often asked if something like Midtown Madness or Driver was out on 360 or PS3, cos it's PG and mission-based, not racing.

I hope this genre of mission-based driving makes a comeback with this.

To "force" 60fps will mean some other department will need to suffer. There are only so many polygons you can process and push out and "sustain" 60fps. UbiSoft may be able to "attain" 60fps, but can the bespoke game engine actually "sustain" 60fps throughout the game no matter how complex and busy the scene becomes.

Polygon and frame rate budgets will be under immense pressure.

Another thing to watch out for is the resolution cheat. They may get to 60fps but how will resolution suffer. Will we get a sub 720p game...

GT5 is a testament to how well 60fps works, and what kind of effect it has on the gameplay. Seriously, when it comes to games that require instant reflexes, like driving games the higher the framerate, the better. That is one beautiful nugget of information that certainly raises the respect that I hold for Ubisoft.
Peace.

60FPS is something that should of been a standard when the new consoles released!every game should be 60FPS, not only racing games, or fast paced games.that and resolution is something that seriously needs to be worked on.that and sound.why the ^%$# are we still using dolby digital?the freaking ps2 used that!most movies these days support DTSHD, but honestly ive probably played 10 games that support DTS, and zero with DTS HD!disappointing when you have a 7.1 B&W settup and your stuck with crappy dolby digital!i watched resident evil afterlife 3Dl ast night, cant believe how good the sound effects are appose to games.i mean BFBC2 and homefront are the best sounding games i have ever played, but movies kick the royal sh*t out of them!we have leaped so far this gen in almost everything, so why is sound design still lagging in the ps2 stage?

I remember getting Driver and thinking what a groundbreaking game it was. I don't think I've been that excited about a game until I started Playing Red Dead! I spent many a hot Summer day just cruising around the map wishing for cruise control! :) Hopefully this will be a worthwhile effort again.

I will probably either rent or really study reviews before laying out hard earned money on this title.